


Family Matters

by Flyting



Series: Hot Teacher / Single Dad AU [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Fluff, Gen, Hot Dad Ben Solo, M/M, Rey is Kylo's kid because reasons, Teacher!Hux, cuteness, past Ben Solo/OFC implied
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-02
Updated: 2016-11-02
Packaged: 2018-08-28 14:47:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,146
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8450500
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Flyting/pseuds/Flyting
Summary: Ben Solo's first meeting with his daughter's teacher, Mr. Hux, did not happen under the best of circumstances.   “Yesterday at recess I caught her standing on a little girl’s back, threatening to make her eat dirt. When I intervened she tried to bite me.”





	

“Can I help you?” the woman behind the counter asks. Her smile has just a few too many teeth to be genuine, and anyway he hadn’t missed the way she tensed up, one hand casually sneaking towards her phone, when he walked in the door.

“Uh, I’m here to meet with my daughter’s teacher.” The words still feel weird and foreign in his mouth. _My daughter._ “I have an appointment,” he adds unnecessarily, resisting the urge to hunch his massive  shoulders under the harsh scrutiny of a forty-year-old receptionist with a soccer-mom haircut.

“Who are you meeting?”  
  
“Mister… Hux?”

“Which one?”  
  
“Is there more than one?” Ben is suddenly adrift, helpless.  
  
She smiles, all unhelpful fake-cheer.  
  
“Uh, she’s in third grade?”

“Just a minute.”  
  
Ben breathes deep; stares at his feet, at the door, then at a poster on the wall of a kitten in a superhero cape, while the receptionist presses buttons on the keypad of her black plastic phone. The poster has the words ‘WE STRIVE FOR EXCELLENCE’ printed at the bottom.  
  
“Hi, Armitage,” her voice is syrupy, flirtatious as she turns to mutter into the receiver. He catches the words, “did you have-“ and, “this man here to see-“  
  
Whoever’s on the other end apparently confirms that he’s not there to kidnap any children, because she plasters that fake smile on her face again and takes his ID, scrutinizing it for longer than necessary before sliding it through a machine and handing him a sticker with ‘GUEST’ and his awful driver’s license picture printed on it, watching unhelpfully while he fumbles to get a fingernail under the edge and peel it off the flimsy paper backing. There is still chipped polish clinging to his nails. He thought he’d got it all off.

Rey had painted them, dripping glittery black nail polish all over his hands and the couch while they watched cartoons a couple of Saturdays ago.

“Room 905, second hallway to your left,” the receptionist rattles off, waving him towards a door with ‘NO VISITORS WITHOUT AN ID BADGE ALLOWED BEYOND THIS POINT’ printed on it. He dutifully sticks the sticker to his shirt before pushing it open.

Ben walks past rows of colorful drawings pinned to the walls. Flowers and bees. The water cycle. It’s cute, even if he couldn’t feel more out-of-place if he tried.

Second hallway _, second hallway_ -  
  
“Can I help you?” an elderly voice asks accusingly.  
  
Christ, he’s been in prisons less restrictive than this.  
  
“I have an appointment,” he says again, brandishing the words and his ID sticker like a shield at a grey-haired old woman with a gaggle of little kids in tow. There are a dozen of them, all staring up at him wide-eyed like he’s the giant from some fairy tale and clutching onto a colorful plastic rope. If he stacked them all up on top of one another they might _maybe_ come up to his knees. They’re so _little._ Rey was never that little, he’s sure.  
  
_She was, you just weren’t there to see it,_ his asshole subconscious supplies unhelpfully.  
  
He immediately feels guilty for thinking the word _asshole_ in a school. It was probably against the rules somehow.  
  
The door to room 905 is cracked open. Beside it there’s a row of papers pinned up, all with scratchy little-kid handwriting and the heading _When I Grow Up I Want To Be..._ He pauses in the hall, scanning past rows of _doctors_ and _veterinarians_ until he sees the one he’s looking for.  
  
_Wen i grow up i want to have a junk yard. i want to hav lots of cars and fix things. i wont make a lot of money but I can fix everything people bring me. i like to fix things. i like cars too. if a car is too broken too fix i will crush it with my junk crusher and make it in to some thing better. – Rey_  
  
He snorts, shaking his head. One of her mom’s boyfriends had owned a junkyard and she’d gotten obsessed with them for some reason. Rey loved to fix things. Where other little girls went as princesses or superheroes for Halloween, she’d gotten a pair of overalls and a wrench from Goodwill, smudged oil on her face, and gone as a mechanic. Everyone had thought it was adorable.

 _“That’s so cute, did you make that yourself?”_ He holds that image in his head, of strangers gushing over Rey in her little mechanic costume, telling her how good she looked, jokingly asking if she could fix their cars, and Rey beaming, so proud and excited. _“I know how to fix the fan belt and the oil!”_ He clings to it. Proof that he did- is doing- _something_ right, at least.

“Come in,” a clipped voice calls when he taps gently on the door with one large fist.

The man sitting behind the desk is clean cut, in a soft pastel button-up and tie, and not much older than Ben is. He’s not entirely sure what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Teachers were supposed to be dowdy women in their thirties. This guy looks like a lawyer. “Uh, mister Hux?”

The eyes that meet his are a pale blue-green, and sharp. “Mister Ren?”  
  
“It’s… it’s Solo, actually,” he mutters, adding an unnecessary explanation, “Ren is her mother’s name.”

“Of course. Please have a seat,” Hux scribbles something on the sheet of paper in front of him, nodding at a chair that’s been pulled up across from the desk. Ben folds up into it, briefly feeling like he’s ten years old and about to be lectured for shouting at the other kids.

There’s a neat stack of papers on the edge of the desk, color-coded tabs sticking out like squashed fingers. Labeled bins for crayons and scissors and homework line the wall behind. It’s all very tidy. Organized, efficient.

“Mister Solo, the reason I asked you to come in is because I’m really rather worried about Rey’s behavior in class.” Hux has an accent- English or maybe Irish or something, Ben can’t really tell the difference. Soft vowels and crisp consonants, and the way he wraps his mouth around the words is oddly distracting.

“What’s wrong with her behavior?” He tries not to sound defensive, he really does.

“Rey is very bright, but she has a tendency to pick fights and I’m worried that she’s acting out in such a violent way. Last week she hit a boy in the face and broke his glasses-“  
  
“She told me about that. She said he was picking on one of her friends.”  
  
“And just yesterday at recess I caught her standing on a little girl’s back, threatening to make her eat dirt. When I intervened she tried to bite me.”  
  
Well, if he ever doubted that Rey was his kid... Ben sighs, rubbing at the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry,” he says.

Hux waves a hand, dismissive, “I’ve certainly had worse,” he says, “And she was good enough to apologize. But Rey’s only been with us for three months and I have six complaints of violence against other students. If this behavior continues she won’t make it to Christmas.”  
  
“What do you mean?”  
  
“I mean she’ll be expelled, mister Solo.”

It’s like the crisp, tidy man in front of him has suddenly dumped a bucket of ice water over his head. “You can’t do that.”

“It won’t be my choice. There are policies.”

“But you don’t understand, I-“ His thoughts race ahead, a runaway train going lightspeed. That couldn’t happen, no, no- his mother had been angling to take custody of Rey away from him ever since he first got her- if Rey got expelled from school she’d haul that up as proof that he was unfit- she’d take him to court this time, and she’d win, she always won- “She can’t get expelled. She can’t.” He’ll do anything- beg, plead, threaten. Although on second thought maybe not threaten. The infamous Solo Family violent streak was what got them into this mess in the first place.  
  
“And she won’t, not if we turn things around now.”  
  
“She’s just…” he offers, helpless, “She’s had a really hard time this year.”

All he wants to do is wrap himself around her like a guardian, to protect her. Too little, too late.

“She transferred rather late in the school year, didn’t she?”

There it was again. _Rather._ There was something distractingly pleasant about the way Hux pronounced the word. It was almost enough to take his mind off of things. Almost.

“She just moved in with me. Her mom had custody before that.”  
  
“Where is Rey’s mother? If you don’t mind me asking.”  
  
“I don’t mind.” He sniffs. “I just don’t know. She took off last year, ditched Rey with some ex-boyfriend and just vanished. I haven’t heard from her.”    
  
“I see.” A frown creases between his eyebrows.

Ben would be the first to admit that he’d been a shitty father for most of her life. If he were inclined to cut himself any slack for it he’d say he was only following the shining example he was given. But he isn’t, and so he doesn’t. When Leia had called him up eight months ago out of the blue, demanding that he go and check on his daughter, he hadn’t even seen Rey in three years.  
  
“But I’m- I mean, we’re trying. We both really want to make this work.”

They were family. Family had to stick together.

“I often tell my students that wanting something and making it happen are two very different things,” Hux says slowly. “Wanting it is just the first step. What are you willing to do to Mister Solo?”  
  
“Anything,” Ben agrees automatically. “Everything. I’m- I owe it to Rey.”

Hux fingers the neat stack of papers idly, considering. “Here’s what I can do for you, Mister Solo-“  
  
“Ben’s fine,” he interrupts. He doesn’t say _Mister Solo is my father_ because that’s the kind of lame old joke his dad would make, but the sentiment is there all the same.  
  
Hux pauses, and for just a second he seems thrown- “Ben, then. I will… have a word with the principal on Rey’s behalf. I believe I may have some leverage there,” he says with a wry half-smile. “However, in the meantime I need your word and hers that there will be no more violence in my classroom.”  
  
“We can do that,” he agrees quickly.  
  
“I also want Rey to speak to the guidance counselor, and for you to keep me updated on the situation at home.  
  
“Fine.” Hux could have asked for a blowjob under the desk and he would have said ‘fine’.  
  
Hux glances at his watch. “Ah. And now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to go and be the bad guy and tell twenty third-graders that recess is over.”  
  
“Have fun with that.”  
  
“Oh, I will.”

He waits around, scaring the receptionist, for the last thirty minutes until school lets out and then Rey and him walk home together.

“Hey, midget.”  
  
“Hey.” Rey didn’t call him ‘dad’ or anything like that. He figured he hadn’t earned it yet, and he’s okay with that. Instead she called him ‘buttface’ or ‘mister bossypants’ or ‘weirdo’. It changed from week to week. Once he’d teased her, calling her ‘princess’, and she’d spent the rest of the week introducing him to people as her knight.  
  
Rey kicks a rock by her shoe, sending it skipping down the sidewalk. Kicks it again when they catch up to it.

“What’s wrong?” he asks.

It’s a few more repetitions with the pebble before she answers. “Am I in trouble?” she says in a small voice. “I know I tried to make Kylee Fleming eat dirt yesterday, but I only did it because she said I was dirty and didn’t shower.”  
  
“Somebody said that to you?”

“And I didn’t mean to bite mister Hux. That was an accident. I said sorry.”

“I know you did.” He sighs. “You can’t bite people, Rey. Or hit them. Or make them eat dirt. Even if they deserve it.”  
  
“You did.” Her perceptiveness always manages to take him by surprise. “You beat somebody up.”  
  
“And I went to jail for it because it was wrong. I don’t want that to happen to you. Okay?”  
  
“Okay,” she says in a small voice.

They walk side-by-side in silence until Ben catches sight of the entrance to their apartment complex.

“Hey,” he says, bumping her with his elbow.  
  
Rey grunts in response, her eyes downcast.  
  
“Guess what?”  
  
“What?  
  
“ _First one home gets ice cream for dinner,”_ he says quietly, waiting until she turns, until she looks up at him and his face breaks into a grin before he starts running.  
  
“Not fair you stupid buttface!” Rey pants, hot on his heels. “You have longer legs!” 


End file.
